The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for dialing out-of-local-area telephone calls. More specifically, the invention provides for allowing a calling party to retrieve out-of-area access codes for a called party's telephone number from a database and automatically calling the called party by utilizing the retrieved access codes and the called party's local telephone number that is input by the caller.
In calling a party that is located out of the calling party's local area, access codes must be utilized to direct the call to the called party. These access codes may be the called party's area code if calling intra-nationally (e.g. within the United States) or may be international calling codes, country codes, and city codes if dialing internationally. In either situation, access codes are required to place the phone call.
The requirement for the caller to remember, or know, these access codes when placing a call is a drawback that can make placing an out-of-area phone call burdensome. As stated previously, for calls within the United States, the called party's area code must be known. In the United States today many geographic areas suffer from shortages of local telephone numbers. To remedy the situation, additional area codes are being utilized in those locations. This results in established local phone numbers being assigned new area codes. It is difficult for an out-of-area calling party to remain aware of the particular area code that may be assigned to a local telephone number. When dialing internationally, it is often difficult to determine what particular access codes are required to place a call to the called party. For example, if dialing long distance within England, a "0" must be added to the local telephone number to place the call, however, if dialing that same number from a location outside of England, i.e. internationally, the "0" must be replaced with "44". Thus, even where out-of-area information is known for a particular called party's phone number, the information that is known may not be correct for placing the call from that particular calling party's geographic location.
Presently, it is possible to obtain assistance in placing an out-of-area call, however, current methods present drawbacks. For example, a calling party is currently able to obtain operator assistance in placing an out-of-area phone call. However, the use of an operator may require additional expense and results in an inconvenience for a calling party by having to utilize a third party in placing a call. A calling party may also obtain assistance in placing a call by looking up the required access codes in a directory, however, this requires the availability of a directory and additional time for looking up the codes. An additional drawback with utilizing a directory, e.g a telephone book, is that directories can quickly become out of date.
Currently, directories are available on the Internet. The shortcoming of this resource is that the current systems are text-based which require that the caller type in the country and city names for which access codes are desired. Incorrect spelling of the locations by the caller can be a problem that will inhibit the caller from obtaining the desired access codes. Additionally, even if the access codes are obtained by the caller, the caller must manually input the obtained access codes when placing a call, e.g. by dialing on the phone keypad or on a computer keyboard, which again can lead to input error and delays when placing a call.
An additional drawback with the current systems is that if an incorrect access code is obtained by the caller and then utilized to attempt to call an out-of-area party, the call will not be completed and no assistance will be provided to the calling party for correcting the error. The current systems cannot correct an incorrectly entered access code. An example of this situation is the call to a city in England, mentioned previously, where "0" is the correct access code for an intra-country long distance call but is an incorrect code for an international long distance call. If an internationally calling party incorrectly dials "0" to place the call, the calling party's error will not be automatically corrected by any of the currently known methods for assisting long distance dialing.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for allowing a caller to easily retrieve access codes for placing an out-of-area phone call, for automatically combining the retrieved access codes with the local telephone number input by the caller to place the out-of-area telephone call, and for correcting any incorrect access codes that may be input by the caller.